Obdurate
by Backwards'n' Upside Down
Summary: Ayano is beaten by Kazuma and vows to get her own back but her friends have other ideas... Written for Lj's fanfic bake off community for the prompt yield, will be a oneshot told in two parts.
1. Chapter 1

Refusal to relent to his taunting and her infamous obstinate nature were the only things that could keep her on her feet right now. Her chest contracted and relaxed heavily, the jerking motion was violent and almost painful. Long hair clung to the nape of her neck and the crimson tendrils stuck in her lashes.

Using Enraiha to keep her shaking knees from collapsing, she glared at the source of her exhaustion. Kazuma.

Otou-sama had proposed some intensive training and Kazuma had only been too happy to dish it out; she'd been in denial when she'd told him she could take it. Now she was measuring her chances of escaping without falling over from exhaustion.

It was unnerving; he'd been doing this for the past hour, cloaking himself using the wind and surprising her as soon as her guard was down.

In the beginning, her frustration at being unable to land a hit on the smug Fujitsu had kept her alert and moving, but now it felt as if she could actually feel gravity pressing down on her, trying to force her to her tired knees.

There!

Swinging round, she brought up Enraiha at the last moment, blocking the cutting wind that had been intent on catching her unguarded back.

The wind dispersed, but the force pushed her back a metre, her heels digging into the earth.

Cursing, she planted Enraiha back into the earth once more and let her fatigued body slump to one knee.

A soft chuckle somewhere to her left made her see red and she promptly sent a blade of fire running in that direction....

Only to get flicked on the nose.

"You've gotten better," Kazuma offered before he floated away.

A light blush now adorned her face as she scowled at her shoes. Damn him.

"Onee-san?" Ren asked, ducking hastily as she threw her pillow at him. She was sat in the centre of her bed with her 'Kazuma' pillow on her lap; pummelling her fake Kazuma seemed to help relieve stress. Ren was happy, as long as she didn't try and relieve her stress on him. He was far more likely to give in and break than her Kazuma pillow.

"Ren?" she asked in bemusement, "what are you doing here?"

Completely oblivious, Ren thought morosely. "You incinerated the entire of the east dojo, your Otou-sama sent me to check that you were okay."

Ayame's eyes grew wide. "The entire of the east dojo?"

Ren nodded vigorously.

"Crap, Otou-sama will kill me!" she groaned thumping backwards onto the bed and plopping her pillow onto her face.

"Why were you so angry?" Ren asked tentatively, he didn't want to get set on fire, regardless of the fact he was fire resistant, she'd probably use Enraiha and that was a sword. He was not sword resistant.

"Kazuma," she growled, her voice was muffled by the pillow but lacked no anger.

"Onii-sama?" Ren blinked owlishly and ran a hand through his hair. He should have guessed, every time the two of them got together something got set on fire.

"Otou-sama made me practise with him, but he basically subjected me to some pain and left, like he was playing with me," she sighed, dejected now.

"Onii-sama is strong," Ren shrugged, "he's just trying to help you in his own way by showing you your weaknesses."

"Gah!" she shot up off the bed into a sitting position, making Ren cringe.

"Onee-sama?"

"He was playing with me! That dumb jerk, like he was saying I'd never be good enough to fight him properly!"

"Onee-sama?"

"I'll show him," she growled darkly.

The punch bag swayed drunkenly as Ayano finished with her tirade of angry punches. She was amazed she hadn't set it on fire yet; it was the way most of the punch bags went in the Kannagi compound. Her Otou-sama told her she was the single most expensive thing he owned; the bills for cleaning up her messes were extraordinary.

Today, after recovering from the beating Kazuma had given her two days ago, she was determined to hunt down the smug Enjitsu and give him a taste of his own medicine.

How she longed to see the arrogant smirk wiped of his face by her fist. Maybe she'd set his hair on fire too...

No lasting damage would be inflicted though, she didn't want to kill him, just maim him a little.

Ayano was half-way out of the door to hunt down Kazuma and demand a rematch when the unsuspecting girl was pounced upon by Yukari and Nanase.

"What are you doing here?" she asked in shock as they both took and arm and frogmarched her from her home.

"We need to show you something!" Yukari insisted happily, her grip surprisingly firm considering the slight build of the blonde girl.

"Yep, Yukari's information network came up with something interesting," Nanase revealed.

Yukari waved a hand dismissively and laughed creepily, "Nanase!" she protested, "don't say that, I just happened to come across the information!"

"That's great, but I really don't have time for this, I need to—"

"No, I insist," Yukari commanded as she and Nanase strengthened their grips on their friend's arm in order to prevent her from extricating herself from their clutches.

"I get the feeling that resistance is futile," Ayano muttered as she surrendered to her bizarre friends and allowed them to drag her down the street.

"Here!" Yukari announced gleefully, turning to Nanase she winked, "I told you my sources were always reliable!"

"What are we looking at?" Ayano asked, as far as she could see it was a street, like any other street, there was a small Ramen stand and a convenience store and a cute fountain with a few children running circles round it.

"Up there!" Yukari produced a pair of binoculars from thin air and thrust them into Ayano's hands.

Frowning slightly at her grinning friends, she lifted the binoculars to her eyes and directed her gaze in the direction Nanase pointed.

Instantly, she recognised Kazuma, he appeared to be stood out on a balcony, but it wasn't his apartment; she'd been there before.

Catherine. She stood beside Kazuma, and as Ayano watched, Catherine tossed her blonde curls, giggled and placed a proprietary hand on Kazuma's arm.

Yukari and Nanase swapped a knowing look as Ayano turned bright red with suppressed rage.

"That girl," Ayano growled.

Attempting to run to the building and pry Catherine's hands from Kazuma, she found herself restrained by her friends.

"Ayano!" Yukari protested, "You can't declare your love dressed in your school uniform!"

Ayano flushed again, but this time in embarrassment. "I'm not going to... no way... I don't—"

Nanase chuckled. "Yukari is right! After all, that girl is wearing such clothes."

Ayano scowled through the binoculars at Catherine. Nanase was right, regardless of what Yukari had said, if she challenged Catherine in her uniform the girl would doubtlessly have something else to snub her with.

Ayano pursed her lips as Catherine pressed her exposed cleavage against Kazuma's arm.

"Fine!" she yielded, "but I don't have any clothes!"

"No problem!" Yukari produced a folded bundle of clothes and led a bemused Ayano to the toilets to change.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kaze no Stigma and make no profit from this. Thank you for reading and please review!

This was written for Fanfic_bakeoff's yield challenge and is a oneshot of two parts. The second part is coming soon!


	2. Chapter 2

Self consciously, Ayano smoothed the skirt down over her legs. She was used to a skirt but not one this feminine. She had no idea where Yukari had acquired it, it seemed to be made from pieces of artistically arranged fabric that floated and fluttered about her legs. The shirt was equally as disorientating with a neckline that was lower than she was comfortable with. The colour disconcerted her; it was the colour of Kazuma's eyes when he invoked the contract with the wind spirits.

As she stepped onto the pavement in front of the apartment she cursed silently as the flimsy heels Yukari had thrust upon her threatened to incapacitate her ankles.

She quickly entered the lobby and moved towards the elevators, intending on taking them up to the fifteenth floor – she'd counted.

But she was foiled, residents needed a swipe card to activate the lift, or they could call down and tell the doorman to let their guest up.

Either way Ayano was never going to make it up to that room.

But giving up wasn't her style.

Tossing her hair over one shoulder and trying to act like a seductress – whilst trying not to remember Kazuma's comment that she held no sex appeal – she sauntered over to the front desk and smiled winningly.

"I'm sorry, I've forgotten my room key, could you please let me up?"

She held in her rage as the young perverted-looking guy glanced down her top and silently prayed this would work.

"Sorry," he replied, never taking his eyes off her cleavage, "I've never seen you before."

Of course he hadn't, he was staring at her breasts.

Resisting the urge to brain him with Enraiha she vacated the building and sought out the fire escape. She'd make it up there, mark her words.

Shoes in hand, Ayano applied a considerable force to the fire escape until it gave in and opened with a satisfying crashing sound.

Quickly vacating the hall in case someone came to investigate the sound, she peeled through the corridor until she reached the room she knew was Catherine's –she'd counted the number of rooms across – and paused. She didn't need to kick this door open, she discovered as she tried the handle; it was already unlocked. Incense

As she slipped into the main lounge she glimpsed the splurges of extravagance that simply screamed Catherine. The fur carpets, the antique western fireplace, the chandelier...

Sounds of muted laughter filtered through the white double doors and she quickly opened them to reveal a secondary living room.

Slipping inside, she nearly fried her brain as she watched Catherine fawn all over Kazuma who remained impassive in the face of her shameless flirting.

It incensed her that Catherine would touch Kazuma like that and it appalled her that Kazuma was letting her.

"Kazuma!" she growled, stalking out onto the balcony.

An eyebrow was crooked as Kazuma surveyed her, "Ayano?"

"Oh." Catherine smirked haughtily. "What are you doing here? I thought you were bedridden after Kazuma beat you in a duel?"

The arrogant blonde was really started to annoy her, Ayano's hands tightened into fists.

"I demand a rematch!" she declared, turning her attention on an amused looking Kazuma. His burgundy eyes glinted at the challenge in her golden ones.

"You demand a rematch?" he enquired as he tilted his head to one side.

"Yes!" she growled.

"You came to challenge him to a duel wearing that?" Catherine asked disbelievingly as she and Kazuma inspected the very feminine – and very unfitting – outfit Ayano had donned.

Abruptly, she flushed to the roots of her hair.

Kazuma watched as the two girls argued back and forth, he was counting down to the moment Ayano drew Enraiha and Catherine conjured her spirit beast; it was inevitable.

Her new outfit was intriguing. She had always been attractive but now it was more obvious. If she'd simply stop screaming at Catherine she'd look delectable. His eyes perused her exposed shoulders leisurely.

But then, he loved it when she got this riled up, even if she refused to admit why she got so angry when Catherine flirted with him.

"Kazuma!" Ayano growled, "what's with the grin?"

It was probably his 'smugly perverted' grin, he mused, as she advanced upon him.

Enraiha materialised in her hand as she brandished it at the irritatingly calm Fujitsu.

"Why are you getting angry at Kazuma-san?" Catherine asked haughtily, "You know, they say that envious people often turn their jealousy on the person they're jealous over."

Ayano glowered at her. "Keep quiet!"

"Angry, aren't we?" Kazuma taunted softly.

She spun to face him and lunged out sharply with Enraiha.

He dodged. She lost her footing due to flimsy shoes.

And she tumbled.

Over

And down...

Kazuma rolled his eyes as Ayano toppled from the balcony. "Sorry, Catherine, I have to catch an Enjitsu."

Catherine scowled as Kazuma threw himself off the balcony after Ayano, presumably to save the red-head.

All the breath was expelled from Ayano's lungs as Kazuma plucked her from mid air, instantly she began thrashing; trying to find a way out of his arms so he could beat the living crap out of him.

"Ayano, do you want me to drop you?" Kazuma enquired, his hot breath ghosted over her exposed neck and sent shivers down her spine.

At his words she yielded to his touch and allowed him to rescue her...again.

She was sulking, she knew she was sulking. He was sat next to her on a park bench, calm as anything, eating Taiyaki.

"You know, you glaring at me isn't exactly conducive to my eating," he mumbled.

Tossing her red hair she turned her back on him. "Like I care!"

He rolled his golden eyes and, with a brief application of pressure on her shoulder, turned her back around and wafted the remnants of his Taiyaki under her nose. "Want some?"

"No!" She pushed his arm away stubbornly.

"You know, I did just save your life," he rolled his eyes, "and pouting is childish."

"I'm not pouting!"

"No, now you're yelling," he intoned, smirking slightly.

"Shut up," she grumbled.

"Make me," he challenged smirking as she tried to punch him. She growled as he continually evaded her; he was tricky to catch off guard.

He caught her wrist tightly and she glared at him. "You know, jealousy doesn't suit you."

She tried to extricate herself from his grip. "I wasn't jealous," she muttered softly.

"Really?" he whispered, leaning his head down to brush his lips along the column of her throat.

She bit her lip and turned bright red. "Get off of me!" she protested, shoving him in the chest.

Unfortunately for Ayano, Kazuma didn't yield to her shove and she teetered backwards and fell off the bench into a crumpled heap at his feet.

Kazuma smirked down at the completely unhindered view of her panties; she really shouldn't wear a skirt. "White."

"Kazuma!" she roared, springing to her feet with and diving for him. He caught her deftly and kissed the surprised Enjitsu on the end of her nose.

"K-kazuma?"

"I win," he grinned as he dropped the bewildered girl onto the ground.

His game had yielded fruit...

"Kazuma!"

A/N: I don't own Kaze no Stigma, thank you for reading and please review!


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